North East & Yorkshire

New 10 acre terminal at Hull Docks

A £3.5m in a state-of-the art 8,500 sq m warehouse is under construction at King George Dock at the Port of Hull.

The investment also includes the refurbishment of existing storage capacity and railway sidings and will incorporate humidity controls for the storage of steel coils within the new warehouse.

The project is being carried out for Associated British Ports (ABP) Port of Hull by Main Contractors Britcon.  Specialist Surfacing ltd provided all the tarmac surfacing on the project.

The project to build the new bespoke 10 acre terminal is the result of a new 10 year agreement between and TransAtlantic UK Ltd, which is switching its British terminal for its three-times a week Swedish sailings from ABP Goole to ABP Hull.

The services operated by TransAtlantic have been calling at ABP’s Port of Goole since the early 90s and now handle in the region of 400,000 tonnes a year. The move to Hull is to accommodate increasing volumes of trade which will also require the relocation of two mobile harbour cranes.

Matt Jukes, ABP Port Director Hull & Goole, said: “After many successful years of operating at Goole, we are delighted to respond to TransAtlantic’s expansion plans through the investment at King George Dock, which further strengthens Hull’s role in Scandinavian trade.”

Nick Green, Managing Director, TransAtlantic UK Ltd, said: “We were very pleased to have reached agreement with ABP. This new, modern terminal in Hull gives us operational advantages, which will result in improved service to our clients.”

Marten Carlquist, Senior Advisor, Rederi AB TransAtlantic, said: “The Hull terminal creates a new platform for development for TransAtlantic. We are looking forward to expanding our business in cooperation with ABP.”

Matt Jukes added: “Although TransAtlantic is leaving Goole, ABP is now actively marketing its former terminal and we are in discussions with a number of companies which see Goole, the UK’s most inland port, as an exciting opportunity for new trade development.”

From the UK, TransAtlantic’s Trans Pal Line service calls at the Swedish ports of Västerås, Oxelösund, Norrköping and Åhus, along with Amsterdam. It also operates services within the Baltic as well as roll-on/roll-off side port shipping operations across the Atlantic and along the US east coast.

In a prime location on the north bank of the River Humber, the Port of Hull is one of the UK’s leading foreign-trading ports. Regular short-sea services operate to Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltic states, and the port also benefits from worldwide deep-sea connections. Hull is the UK’s leading softwood timber-handling port and regularly handles in excess of 1.5 million cu m of timber, in addition to large volumes of other forest products. The Port of Hull is the only passenger port on the Humber, handling nearly one million passengers per year. The port’s Rotterdam Terminal accommodates the super-cruise ferries operated by P&O Ferries on the Hull–Rotterdam crossing.

The King George and Queen Elizabeth docks were built as a joint development between the Hull and Barnsley Railway and the North Eastern Railway, and contracted to S. Pearson in 1906. The design was undertaken by Sir Benjamin Baker and Sir John Wolfe-Barry. King George Dock (also known as the Joint Dock) was opened in 1914 by King George V.

The UK’s leading ports group, Associated British Ports (ABP) owns and operates 21 ports all around the UK and handles approximately a quarter of the country’s seaborne trade. Its ports are: Ayr, Barrow, Barry, Cardiff, Fleetwood, Garston, Goole, Grimsby, Hull, Immingham, Ipswich, King’s Lynn, Lowestoft, Newport, Plymouth, Port Talbot, Silloth, Southampton, Swansea, Teignmouth and Troon.

ABP also has a property division which is responsible for managing the Group’s extensive land and property assets.

Britcon

The future development of Associated British Ports Hull estate takes a further step forward with works currently being undertaken by Britcon at King George Dock. Comprising the construction of Shed 6, this £2million project sees Britcon undertaking the design and construction of an 8500 m² steel storage facility including substructure, structural steelwork frame, insulated cladding, heavy duty floor slab, doors and lighting together with extensive external works all to be finally completed by the end of November 2011.

In conjunction with this project Britcon have redeveloped the existing Shed 4 changing its use including new access arrangements, gatehouse and external works.

Throughout the company’s 21 year history Britcon have provided a customer focused approach to Port Operators having undertaken major projects at the majority of the east coast ports including Hull, Grimsby, Immingham, Goole, Ipswich and Kings Lynn.

Britcon’s Managing Director Shaun Hunt states ‘Our expertise and knowledge within design and build at ports facilities coupled with Britcon’s diversification into emerging market sectors including Renewable Energy demonstrates our company’s long term commitment and strategy. We look forward to assisting Associated British Ports maintain a sustainable future throughout the development of the Humber Ports.’

About the author

Roma Publications